Dyeing and Buying Wool

It’s another slippery slope – wool. And it’s all because of Sherrie. If you’d like to see what Sherrie is doing and what got me inspired to go down this path, check out her blog – Sherrie loves color.

As I mentioned in my last post, I really enjoyed stitching in Connie’s class this month. As a child I spent a lot of time embroidering pillowcases and other items. In addition to reading and playing with Misi, my neighbor who lived across the street and four houses down, I loved to embroider. I assumed everyone did it as a child.

As I got older, I spent a lot of time on counted cross stitch. I liked it better than embroidery because I could take a pattern, use different colored cloth, and change the thread colors. For me, that was being real creative. I remember making pieces for friends and even for a boyfriend. He was a bicycle racer so I found a pattern with a guy on a bike and colored it with thread to match his hair and his bike.

But then I got into quilting and all of that fell by the wayside. But let’s stop this memory lane visit and get to the post today.

After reading Sherrie’s posts about wool applique I wanted to try it. I have a lot of thread and needles to play, but didn’t have any dyed wool. However, I had some 100% white wool felt I purchased recently for a project still in my head. I had never dyed wool so I thought this would be a fun challenge.

And my results so far.

If you are interested in dyeing wool, I’ll be posting my tutorial in the next couple days.

I also stopped by the local thrift shop and picked up some wool jackets. Before popping them in the washer, I cut them into pieces. I washed them in hot water and then tossed them in the dryer. So in addition to my dyed pieces, I now have these to work with.

Now to decide on a pattern. Stay tuned!